1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to the field of travel insurance. More specifically, this invention relates to providing travel insurance offers in conjunction with passport photos.
2. Description of the Related Art
As travel becomes cheaper and the Internet makes research easier, Americans are choosing to vacation in more exotic locations. A quick look at the travel section of the New York Times, for example, reveals articles on destinations such as Africa, Barbados, Berlin, Spain, China, Majorca, New Delhi, Norway, and Venice. When a tourist is in a foreign country and a problem arises, however, obtaining help for the problem, such as medical services, can be quite difficult. The language barrier further complicates the search for services.
Since the events of Sep. 11, 2001, the demand for travel insurance increased five-fold from 8-10% to over 40% of travelers. In 2006, over $1.3 billion was spent on travel insurance. Travel insurance typically provides coverage in the following three areas: (1) financial reimbursement for problems relating to the trip, e.g. trip cancellation or delay relating to illness or bad weather, baggage loss, etc.; (2) medical insurance and medical evacuation coverage when illness or injury occurs; and (3) assistance for helping to locate doctors, make arrangements, or contact family members in an emergency.
To travel to a different country, a tourist must obtain a passport. In 2005, nine million new or renewed passports were issued by the state department. Passport photos can be obtained from the post office, the drugstore, cell-phone stores, or even shipping stores, such as UPS. These passport photos are delivered to the customer in a laminated folder, such as the one illustrated in FIG. 1 (prior art). These folders are blank except for instructions for how to insert the photos. Two photographs are provided and inserted between the die cuts 100.
M. Scroggie, System and Method for Providing Shopping Aids and Incentives to Customers through a Computer Network, U.S. Pat. No. 6,885,994 (26 Apr. 2005) discloses a system for transmitting an electronic coupon for a retail store to a customer over the Internet. The system receives a postal region code from the customer and provides coupons of interest to the customer. For example, if the customer is shopping for groceries, the customer can browse through a list of available products and select products on the computer screen to receive an electronic coupon. The customer prints out the coupon and redeems it at the grocery store identified on the coupon.